Presenter:

Michael Wilkinson(Mathematics and Statistics, Open University)

Author:

Michael Wilkinson(Mathematics and Statistics, Open University)

Rainfall from ice-free cumulus clouds requires collisions of large numbers of microscopic droplets to create every raindrop. The onset of rain showers can be surprisingly rapid, much faster than the mean timerequired for a single collision. Large-deviation theory is used to explainthis observation.

The presentation is based upon a recent paper: Phys. Rev. Lett., 116, 018501 (2016).